Asking what puts you off when viewing a house to buy?

[DarkGreen]

We have had our house valued but we are just getting the house ready to sell. Touching it up bits and tidying up.

For context its a 2 bed terraced house on a country lane with no driveway but space on the Road to park outside the house. It is an old house.

What areas and things should we focus on? What would you look for and what would put you off?

@DarkGreen

The garden is south facing and not overlooked but it is messy needs weeding and we haven't done any fancy patio its just a bit of patio as you walk out then grass to the end. Would this put you off?

A messy garden would put me off. A few weeds are fine but something that looks uncared for isn’t (to me).

Also, carpet in the kitchen - hate it! Not keen on it in bathrooms either.

Smells in the bathroom - they linger and can be intrusive. You also get noseblind to them - but viewers aren’t.

Built in storage over the bed. I’d need to rip that out.

An obvious lack of space - eg things piled up on the floor or on the kitchen top.

An old boiler or a boiler in a ‘weird’ or intrusive place.

A boiler in a bedroom - a total No for me.

General mess - it makes me think that if people can’t be bothered to tidy up what maintenance can’t they be bothered to do too.

Not enough privacy from neighbours in the garden - one house had a half-height wire mesh fence so zero privacy, another had a gate so their kids could play in each other's gardens together. Any lack of defined borders between properties.

Mouldy bathrooms.

Toilet in utility room without any walls etc - literally a toilet open in a room. Surprisingly common. Have even seen this where the utility room is the way into the garden so you would be using the toilet in the middle of a domestic thoroughfare. Have also seen shower rooms inserted into bedrooms (not proper ensuites).

Dog smells, air freshener smells, used cat litter (don't mean just wee)

Signs of problem neighbours (outside mess, notice warning of attack dogs, teens with mopeds, etc)

Mass cheap laminate flooring throughout house. Signs of DIY electrics (sockets in the floor).

Not bothered at all about problem gardens, unless it has japanese knotweed - that would be a hard no. Gardens are much easier to fix than houses.

In terms of things you can actually fix:

-Clutter/general grime

I know it will be a blank space when I move in but it really helps to envision myself there with a near space

Obviously things others have mentioned like parking etc but you can't really do anything about that, and not everyone owns a car anyway

Gosh, reading the posts on here I realise how unfussy I am. I know that not everyone is up for a spot of diy, but some of the things mentioned are very simple and relatively cheap to change.

Smells particularly smoke and wet dog smell and I say that as the owner of three dogs. There is no need for a house to smell of dogs if both the dogs and house are cleaned properly and regularly. But once its gets bad it's hard to get rid of and after having to pull up all the carpets in my current house due to a damp dog scent I'm now put off.
Also small things obviously covered up like pp says if you're trying to hide small stains or damage what else is there not being disclosed

Mold in the walls. Big headache!

Old looking electrics.

Bad water pressure

each to their there is a home for every one but for me my pet peeves

strong smell of dog or cigarettes
lack of parking
whats the garden like,lack of vegetation concrete
near motorway
near river
no downstairs toilet
damp

The parking situation is one of the first things I look for on estate agents details.

On street parking would be a concern for me. We viewed a house recently which had no path running past or front garden. So it was unrestricted parking literally outside the front of the house. We managed to park easily which was a bonus, but there was another car parked directly outside the living room window. This car didn't look road worthy and clearly hadn't moved for a good long time. I asked the sellers if it was there's and they said no it wasn't theirs and they didn't know who it belonged to. The idea of opening my living room curtains every day and staring into someone's possibly abandoned car (you could touch it from the window it was that close) put me off. There were other issues with the house so that wasn't the only reason (tiny living room not big enough for a sofa for example) but it didn't help. Having previously lived in an area where it seemed to be actual parking wars between the neighbours has put me off living somewhere without my own parking space.

Neighbouring gardens - football nets, tree houses close to the fence, trampolines, hot tubs close to the fence. Fine if you have a young family/don't mind a lot of noise but not for me. I realise you can't change this though.

Houses with no internal walls or features/character. I want rooms, with doors, a fireplace, some interesting features. I would view a property if it was otherwise suitable but would be wanting to reinstate walls etc.

A shabby front door, particularly one that is difficult to open or close (surprisingly common). The front door is the first thing you see and one that shuts in a pleasingly solid way will make the house feel safer.

A very run down garden with a lot of brambles. Brambles are a horror to get out.

I don't mind family photos but anything too personal will put me off. I saw one once where the main bedroom had a bunch of nude photos up.

Anything that makes me think that the owners / residents don't want to sell or move out. I saw one where the family had let their teenage children write all over the built in wardrobes, the garden was covered in dog shit and there were black bin bags all over the kitchen. They were probably tenants who didn't want to move out.

Security bars over the windows makes me think the area is unsafe. I saw one house where the owner was very proud of their security but had chosen to live behind bars.

I'd be ecstatic if there was a garden that needed a lot of work, because I'm a passionate gardener and it would give me a chance to plan one from scratch. But I appreciate I'm in the minority!

I would say the smell, which sounds really odd but it can create a bad impression. Open all the windows if possible so it feels fresh and shut them just before viewing.

Other than that cleanliness. It doesn't need to be spotless but it needs to appear clean. Keep work surfaces clear and floors mopped/hoovered if possible.

Allow as much natural light in as possible and don't crowd in a room as it makes it feel small.

For me,what put me off (but my partner didn’t notice)
Crumbling fence
Grubby front door
Loads of pictures of the kids-they where everywhere you looked
3 kids following me everywhere-they where lovely,sweet kids but was a bit off putting
Clutter that had been rammed into one room-boxes of clutter-so you couldn’t see the size of the room

We still fell in love with the house and bought it but I can see why it had been up twice and we where the only ones to say we wanted it

I do think that every house will sell eventually if priced right. However if you want your house to sell quickly thing there is lots you can do to make that happen. De-clutter, tidy garden, clean everything, fairly neutral decor, do any repairs that are outstanding. It's not difficult.

My daughter is house hunting at the moment and there is one house that stands out. It was bought two years and you can see photos online from the sellers now and the previous sale. It's quite tragic actually. They have managed to devalue and ruin a perfectly lovely, if slightly dated home. Two years ago it looked care for and tidy. Now it looks scruffy, untidy and unloved. They haven't done a lick of decorating, but have removed the bath, put in an ugly conservatory and there is stuff everywhere. My daughter would have happily bought it two years ago, but not so sure now.

I never look at carpets or over bed wardrobes because I would replace carpets anyway. Same goes for decor.

@jamesfailedmarshmallows

Went to see a house where the owner had 4 pugs and an aversion to opening windows (they were all nailed shut) The dog smell was horrendous and to make it worse she had those automatic air fresheners in every single room, blasting out nausea inducing artificial fragrance. The house was nice but we both agreed that if we bought it we'd have to strip the house back to bare walls/floors, we just knew the smell would linger no matter what.

Sometimes the doggy smell is so bad that you have to do more than just strip back to the bare floor. I know someone who had to dig up the concrete and replace the entire ground floor of their house because the stench of the previous owners' dogs had permeated through the carpets and into the concrete floors below. No matter how much they washed, bleached and aired the bare floors, the smell wouldn't go away, so they had no option but to dig it up and replace the whole lot!

It's getting the price right, really. And making sure it's clean and fairly clutter free. There will be people who'd rather pay less for a house and redo the bathroom, and people who want to move in and not touch anything. And all the south-facing garden/off road parking etc will presumably be factored into the price.
(We had some people look around our ex-council flat in Islington years ago who complained about the view from the balcony (over a cut through and then a row of gardens). If we'd actually looked on to Clissold Park or a nice little square or something the flat would have been in a totally different price bracket!)

Things that have put me off (that people could change):

We looked at one house, years ago, where the main wall in the living room had a giant fish tank and then, above it, a huge portrait of the couple that owned the house in their underwear.

Another where the couple were clearly alcoholics and the place stank. I walk past this one regularly still and it's a nice house, in a great location, and if we'd bought it we'd have paid off the mortgage by now rather than having another 6 years to go. (No regrets - I love our house, but it makes you think.)

But basically, I think tidy up, open the windows beforehand, and the people that want your house will find it. Good luck!

Smells
Clutter
Scruffiness
Darkness
Cold

For me:
Location is top of the list - I have lived in scuzzy areas, will not do so again. I'm presuming you wouldn't fail that test.

Structural problems (e.g. downstairs chimney breast removed, upstairs ones left in place - absolute walk straight back out the door from me because this costs 10s of thousands to fix).

Lack of paperwork - I foolishly bought a house with a dodgy loft conversion on the basis of "indemnity insurance" only to find you can't sell it on without either bringing it up to building regs standards or taking a huge hit on price.

Features I find really hideous that would be expensive, time consuming and messy to put right - e.g. exposed brick/ Yorkstone fireplace.

Kitchen with a really impractical layout.

Obviously crappy neighbours (car up on bricks, old mattress in the garden, strong smell of weed, that sort of thing).

I am not in the part of the market where I can think in terms of a "forever house" or ticking loads of boxes - for me it's always going to be a compromise, but even at my "just need somewhere to live that I can afford" end of the market, those are the things that would make me walk away.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

We have an extremely ripe-smelling dog they can probably smell her next door. Guess we're stuck here.

We were put off one house because the seller kept saying how great the neighbours were, and how they were always seeing each other for drinks and bringing food round. I'm all for cordial relations, but I'm not massively outgoing and I couldn't deal with that. It wasn't the only factor, but it would always put me off.

Not at all. Our house stank of dog/cat, as they were a sort of foster home-for-the-rescue: 17 cats & 3 dogs. Put all the other buyers off, we could see past a smell of cat wee, and were prepared to clean and decorate.

Square toilets and bath tubs that look like troughs, those ugly modern ones. And those big brown bathroom tiles from the 90's. A nice bathroom matters to me and I couldn't face changing it. I have seen properties that were OK ish until I got to the bathroom photos and that has just tipped the balance between 'could be OK' and eeuurrgghhh that's foul'.

Sorry there's a random "thing" in my previous post.

While I'm here I will say that we always sold quickly, which I think is because of the simple steps I listed in my post.

80sMum Fri 15-Jan-21 09:50:34
jamesfailedmarshmallows

Went to see a house where the owner had 4 pugs and an aversion to opening windows (they were all nailed shut) The dog smell was horrendous and to make it worse she had those automatic air fresheners in every single room, blasting out nausea inducing artificial fragrance. The house was nice but we both agreed that if we bought it we'd have to strip the house back to bare walls/floors, we just knew the smell would linger no matter what.

Sometimes the doggy smell is so bad that you have to do more than just strip back to the bare floor. I know someone who had to dig up the concrete and replace the entire ground floor of their house because the stench of the previous owners' dogs had permeated through the carpets and into the concrete floors below. No matter how much they washed, bleached and aired the bare floors, the smell wouldn't go away, so they had no option but to dig it up and replace the whole lot!

This is what i mean by strong dog smells ,absolute nightmare to remove.You could be ripping stuff out for years and the smell can still linger ,expensive to fix

@Rosehip10

Large trampolines in the garden.

I agree with this one! We had one when y kids were a bit younger and it was bad enough getting rid of that and making the lawn nice again, let alone doing it as a result of someone else's kids! If you have kids yourself that would make use of it then not o bad I guess.

Someone said they didn't like en-suites but I have one and it would put me off now if a house didn't have one so swings and roundabounts! I like having a bathroom to myself!

I'd just say keep it clean and tidy (standards differ with this so I'd er on the side of over clean and tidy - put as many personal belongings away as you can), make sure everywhere is as neutrally and freshly decorated as possible, make sure there are no off-putting smells (maybe get someone else to check if you can).

Litter tray
Loads of bottles in the bathroom
Dirty skirting boards
Plug in air fresheners
Old, dated lino
Fake wood or stone wallpaper on walls

Artext I wouldn't mind - inherited a house with a load in and got in a plasterer to skim it; couldn't believe how easy it was and what a difference it made.